Dark Passion Play
by Lydia Sabine
Summary: What if you knew a secret that could change history before it was even written? What if that secret was one you knew you couldn't tell? What if you knew someone was going to die? AUish
1. Chapter: Prologue

**DISCLAIMER: HARRY POTTER et al. COPYRIGHT TO JK ROWLING**

**Prologue**

Looking back on it, my life was never as simple as I thought it was, even before. Well, atleast after I met Harry. Before him, before Hogwarts, I guess it was simple.

Though I think it's safe to say it got really complicated in sixth year. I knew it would-hell, Voldemort was practically breathing down our necks, I think most people would have thought complicated was an understatement.

Complicated is when the one man you hate, the one man you couldn't stand above almost anything, becomes a hero. Complicated is when you're the only one that knows.

Complicated becomes understated when you help that man become a demon to everyone else and you're the only one that knows the absolute truth. The only one alive, that is.

Draco Malfoy didn't even know. I'm glad he didn't. I don't think even he would have survived.

I think he thought it was possible to spare Albus Dumbledore the fate that befell him-his death that he himself ordered. If he'd known life was not an option...Well, maybe things would be different. Things-and I hate to use this word again-would have been far more complicated.

My role, amidst all the chaos?

Other than my part as Harry Potter's best friend, I became a tool against Voldemort. I was used to feed false information to Harry, and to distract and otherwise hinder Hermione Granger from being too clever.

I'm Ronald Weasley. What follows may shock or surprise you, but it is my story. All of it true, every event, every action, every word laid down as faithfully as I can recall.

For twelve years I have kept silent. That silence ends now.


	2. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: HARRY POTTER et al. COPYRIGHT TO JK ROWLING.**

**Chapter 1**

Detention. Strange how such an innocuous event-especially for me-could have such life changing consequences.

It was still early in the year, and I had managed to get myself introuble yet again. Well, it didn't surprise me, the professor who had sentanced me to hours of grueling punishment had been Severus Snape. Tall, dark, and definately, _definately,_ dangerous.

And I was alone. Whatever I'd done, I'd done on my own. Well, that's not quite accurate. Hermione still to this day says I was goofing off. In truth, I'd been trying to practice casting whatever spell we'd been given silently. I think I may have done so, too. But whatever the outcome, Snape had barked his orders and left me little choice.

Which turned out to be more critical to my life than even that old bat Trelawny could have predicted.

When Snape orders you to report for detention, you do it, or he'll-and I doubt it's not literal-have your hide. So, we've already established I was alone, what I've failed to mention so far is that when I arrived promptly at the time given me, Professor Snape was not there.

His door was open, so at the time I figured he'd just stepped out, no doubt to find something suitable to whatever infraction I'd commited. I settled into a chair farthest from his desk in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, and wisely deciding that looking busy was better than looking bored, I pulled out my homework.

It wasn't long before my wait was over, though at that moment I'd failed to realise the significance of his companion.

"Voldemort wants-" Albus Dumbledore had begun, well before they came in the door but well after coming within earshot.

"What Lord Voldemort wants can wait until the end of the year." I could hear the stubborn note in Snape's slick voice.

"You think you can find a way around this by then?" The note of mockery touching the headmaster's voice was new, even the age. I was so used to hearing the voice of someone

much younger.

Severus scoffed, and I heard them stop outside the door. "I have no choice." He took a step back, entering his classroom just ahead of the headmaster. "I cannot get around the fact that I must kill you."

I will admit it was then that I truly earned my detention. Maybe even some of the pain of the events that had just been set in motion. Blindly I reacted, grabbing my wand from my bag and lunging. My only thought-"If he kills Dumbledore, what's to stop him from getting Harry, or Hermione?"

My admittedly spectacular leap was caught short, and I came to a crashing halt as I landed painfully in a pile of desk splinters and limbs. I would like to say I struggled against the bodybind against me, but you know as well as I do fighting that doesn't do anything. The best I could do was glare out at Snape, any words and half-empty threats merely a menacing growl emerging from my chest.

"Severus, I hadn't realised I was keeping you from guests," I didn't look away from Snape when Dumbledore spoke, watching the man glance to a clock and cursing silently.

"I didn't realise you were, either." He looked down, derision and rage evident. "I need to get rid of his memories."

"He might be useful," Dumbledore quickly intervened, entering my line of sight. I spared a look at him, and I think he thought it amusing. He gave a chuckle, leaning against a desk I had somehow managed to spare from my crashing descent. "Think on it, Severus. Miss Granger is a little too clever-and more than a little too powerful-to succumb easily to memory modification."

"And you're proposing-?" Snape had asked the very question-using the exact suspicious tone-I wished to ask.

"Distract her. Feed she and Harry false information. Make sure she's thrown off any good leads long enough to not put them together-until after I die, atleast." 

I'll admit now it was vaguely disturbing to hear my headmaster admit he would die, and that he knew how and why. But I will also admit that as disturbing as it was, it wasn't nearly as chilling as what they were both planning for me.

Getting back to those events, I think Albus sensed I wanted to talk, and he released atleast enough of me to do so freely. Of course, that was after he'd closed and warded the door, because the moment I could move my mouth and make sound, I raised an awful noise. I can't quite remember what, but it had Snape physically silencing me with a hand clamped around my mouth.

"Just because I will let you speak does not mean I will allow it to be freely."

I merely growled in response, causing Dumbledore to chuckle. "Severus, think on it. Would you rather destroy a great mind, or build one?"

I know I looked askance at the older man, and to this day I think Snape had given him the same look.

"Make Mister Weasley a tool. Teach him subtlety, how to find someone's weakest flaws. Show him how to use casual actions and small words to hammer at those flaws until they crack."

I'd managed to wrench my mouth free during the little speech. "You mean, make me a spy against my two best friends. I'm sorry, but I'd rather be dead-"

"Harry cannot know anything. That I must be betrayed, that it can only be Severus that betrays me. More importantly he must be made to feel that I care about him so that when it seems to come out that he was 'only a tool' he will be angry. Angry enough to drive him to want to kill Voldemort."

"Anger-"

"Anger is a powerful tool, Weasley," Snape said, crouching close enough to look down at me. I know why, now. I didn't realise it was to look into me, to drive the importance of his words. "Fear is useless, as is joy. To fight Voldemort, and to win, it _must_ be anger. Anger and pain, that drive one. It is the best 'fuel' for our magic."

I snorted, and Dumbledore released me so I could sit up. "You want to piss off Harry, that's your deal. He is my best friend, and I want no part of your schemes." I'd followed my words by standing, grabbing my bag, and retrieving my wand from where it had fallen. I followed that by looking at him, at Severus Snape.

That's when it really hit me. I didn't have a choice in the matter, not then, not now. If I'd truly refused, they would have gone after Hermione. They knew as well as I did we could not afford to loose her, her mind.

I made the choice that would test just how loyal I was, that would soon have me questioning everything I'd formerly believed in.

"You find the excuse that keeps me in detention alone. I'll be your puppet. If it keeps them safe I'm your bloody dog," I'd meant every word I said. "But if at any time, I suspect, I get proof, that this is not to help Harry defeat Voldemort, then I'll spill."

"I would expect nothing less, Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore gave me.

At the time, I'd had very little idea that that wasn't the worst of it.

Author's notes: This IS the final release version of Chapter One. Sort of. It may undergo some minor editing yet.

Thanks to my readers, reviewers, and my betas AgentMonk and LadyKnight. :)

Chapter two is being written, and will be published as soon as beta'd and edit'd (okay, okay...edited. Sheesh :3)


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